The Greatest Christmas Novels, Short Stories & Poems in One Volume, with its striking assortment of literary styles, brings together a remarkable tapestry of festive narratives. From the whimsical charm of Beatrix Potter to the profound depths of Fyodor Dostoevsky, the collection encapsulates the multifaceted spirit of Christmas. It seamlessly weaves together the joy, melancholy, wonder, and contemplation that characterize the season, offering readers a comprehensive exploration of its significance across different cultures and periods. The anthology's diverse range, including celebrated works like Dickens' ghosts of Christmas and Andersen's fairy tales, underscores the universal resonance of Christmas — a time of reflection, renewal, and connection. The authors and poets featured in this compilation represent a veritable Who's Who of the literary pantheon, each having left an indelible mark on their respective genres. Figures like Selma Lagerlöf and Leo Tolstoy contribute narratives that reflect their complex societies and the human condition, while poets like William Wordsworth and Emily Dickinson offer lyrical expressions of the yuletide spirit. This blend of voices, from the Romantic to the Realist, exemplifies the ever-evolving cultural and emotional landscape of Christmas, illustrating how this holiday transcends geographical and temporal boundaries to speak to universal themes of love, loss, and hope. This anthology is an essential addition to any literary enthusiast's collection, appealing not only for its historical and cultural significance but also for its ability to inspire and resonate on a personal level. Readers are invited to delve into the rich tapestry of stories and poems that, together, compose a multidimensional portrait of Christmas. Whether one is drawn to the nostalgic allure of classic tales or the profound reflections in poetic verse, this volume promises a rewarding journey through the vast emotional landscape that Christmas encompasses, fostering a deeper appreciation for the ways in which this holiday is celebrated — and its stories told — around the world.
The Greatest Christmas Novels, Short Stories & Poems in One Volume (Illustrated)
Authors:
- Selma Lagerlöf
- Charles Dickens
- Mark Twain
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- George MacDonald
- William Wordsworth
- Louisa May Alcott
- Walter Scott
- Anthony Trollope
- Rudyard Kipling
- Beatrix Potter
- Emily Dickinson
- O. Henry
- L. Frank Baum
- J. M. Barrie
- E. T. A. Hoffmann
- Hans Christian Andersen
- William Butler Yeats
- Henry van Dyke
- Lucy Maud Montgomery
- Leo Tolstoy
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Lord
- Brothers Grimm
- Clement Moore
Format:
Duration:
- 4786 pages
Language:
English
- 2406 books
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and grew up in poverty. This experience influenced ‘Oliver Twist’, the second of his fourteen major novels, which first appeared in 1837. When he died in 1870, he was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey as an indication of his huge popularity as a novelist, which endures to this day.
Read more - 1741 books
Mark Twain
Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, left school at age 12. His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher, which furnished him with a wide knowledge of humanity and the perfect grasp of local customs and speech manifested in his writing. It wasn't until The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), that he was recognized by the literary establishment as one of the greatest writers America would ever produce. Toward the end of his life, plagued by personal tragedy and financial failure, Twain grew more and more cynical and pessimistic. Though his fame continued to widen--Yale and Oxford awarded him honorary degrees--he spent his last years in gloom and desperation, but he lives on in American letters as "the Lincoln of our literature."
Read more - 301 books
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) was an American abolitionist and author of more than 20 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) was a realistic account of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom.
Read more - 946 books
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was born on 13 November 1850, changing his second name to ‘Louis’ at the age of eighteen. He has always been loved and admired by countless readers and critics for ‘the excitement, the fierce joy, the delight in strangeness, the pleasure in deep and dark adventures’ found in his classic stories and, without doubt, he created some of the most horribly unforgettable characters in literature and, above all, Mr. Edward Hyde.
Read more - 129 books
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads.
Read more - 589 books
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was born in 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She is best known for Little Women (1868), which is loosely based on her own life and proved to be one of the most popular children’s books ever written. Three sequels followed: Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871), and Jo’s Boys (1886). Alcott was the daughter of the famous transcendentalist Bronson Alcott and was friend of Emerson and Thoreau. In addition to writing, she worked as a teacher, governess, and Civil War nurse, as well as being an advocate of abolition, women’s rights, and temperance. She died in 1888 and is buried in Sleepy Hollow cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
Read more - 746 books
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott was born in Scotland in 1771 and achieved international fame with his work. In 1813 he was offered the position of Poet Laureate, but turned it down. Scott mainly wrote poetry before trying his hand at novels. His first novel, Waverley, was published anonymously, as were many novels that he wrote later, despite the fact that his identity became widely known.
Read more - 1045 books
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, in 1865. One of the most revered writers in recent history, many of his works are deemed classic literature. To this day, he maintains an avid following and reputation as one of the greatest storytellers of the past two centuries. In 1907, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in 1936, but his stories live on—even eighty years after his passing.
Read more - 405 books
Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist; she was best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Read more - 187 books
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life, but today is considered to be one of the most influential poets in American history.
Read more - 550 books
O. Henry
William Sydney Porter—later to be known as O. Henry—was born in North Carolina in 1862. Known for his surprise endings and ability to capture the hope and pathos of ordinary people, Henry is best remembered for his stories about New York City. The Gift of the Magi was written in 1906, four years before his death.
Read more - 444 books
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum was born in Chittenango, New York, on May 15, 1856. Over the course of his life, Baum raised fancy poultry, sold fireworks, managed an opera house, opened a department store, and an edited a newspaper before finally turning to writing. In 1900, he published his best known book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Eventually he wrote fifty-five novels, including thirteen Oz books, plus four “lost” novels, eighty-three short stories, more than two hundred poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings. Baum died on May 6, 1919. He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California.
Read more - 226 books
J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan.
Read more - 932 books
Hans Christian Andersen
One of the most prolific and beloved writers of all time, Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen is best known for his fairy tales. Born in Odense, Denmark, in 1805, Andersen published his first story at 17. In all, he wrote more than 150 stories before his death in 1875.
Read more - 76 books
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats is generally considered to be Ireland’s greatest poet, living or dead, and one of the most important literary figures of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.
Read more - 353 books
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), was a Canadian author best known for her series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, which was an immediate success. The first novel was followed by a series of sequels with Anne as the central character. Montgomery went on to publish 20 novels as well as 500 short stories and poems. She was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Read more - 868 books
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy grew up in Russia, raised by a elderly aunt and educated by French tutors while studying at Kazen University before giving up on his education and volunteering for military duty. When writing his greatest works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy drew upon his diaries for material. At eighty-two, while away from home, he suffered from declining health and died in Astapovo, Riazan in 1910.
Read more - 85 books
Clement Moore
Clement Clarke Moore, (1779-1863), was a professor at New York City's General Theological Seminary (built on land donated by his father) who, in an 1836 reprint of A Visit From St. Nicholas (more commonly known today as Twas the Night Before Christmas), was first credited as the author of the poem, and later included it in an anthology of his work.
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